On January 24 and 25, 2023, 30 IT representatives from 15 Bavarian cities met for the first Hackathon in Erlangen. A hackathon - word creation from "hack" and "marathon" - is a collaborative software development event. The focus of the hackathon in Erlangen was on online services for citizens*. Online services are about the digitization of administrative services, such as the ability to register a business online from home and save a trip to city hall.
The event focused on strategies for the exchange and reuse of web forms between cities, as well as a concept for the division of labor in the creation of online services. The central topic was the development of common standards as an important cornerstone both for the cross-city use of web forms and for a uniform presentation for citizens beyond the borders of their own municipality. In addition, the joint monitoring for the Online Access Act (OZG) implementation was also addressed, in order to be able to track which city is currently working on which online services.
Andreas Götz, Head of the Office for Digitization and Information Technology, is pleased about the successful hackathon and wants to promote the inter-municipal exchange in IT even more in the future: "Digitization is a major task, but also a great opportunity. Central elements of digitization are communication and networking. Only in this way can we exploit the full potential and fulfill our service mission for citizens*."
The plan is for the hackathon to become a regular event between the cities, with alternating host roles.
On the background - the Online Access Act (OZG)
The OZG, which was passed in 2017, obliges the federal, state and local governments to offer service offerings and administrative services digitally for citizens*. The journey to the town hall is to become less in the next few years. Instead, citizens should be able to submit applications and complete administrative procedures from their home PCs. The city of Erlangen currently (as of January 31, 2023) already offers 161 online services for citizens.
In the course of the OZG, all cities face the same challenge: the digitization of administrative services for citizens. Depending on the size and resources of the cities and municipalities, the digitization of administrative services takes place at different speeds. Events such as hackathons help to exploit synergy effects and promote exchange between cities. So that more online services can be provided for citizens more quickly.
